Read To Mend a Broken Heart for Free Online Page B

he brings his car around. I sit in my car and wait and as I wait, I think. I overthink. When I close my eyes to try and steady myself, all I see in Richard’s face. I see him smiling at me the day he died, the day of the accident, then I see him, hunched over the steering wheel, blood trickling down from a cut above his eye. I try to shake the thoughts but they invade my mind. A knock on the window makes me jump and I look up to see Daniel’s worried face. I open the window and he crouches down to look me in the eyes. When his hand stretches out and his thumb wipes away a tear, I crumble, the tears come on so suddenly and fiercely I choke on them. Gasping for breath, I wrap my arms around myself as the grief I thought I had under control overwhelms me.
     
    “ Katie.. ” Daniel’s voice is pained.
     
    “Daniel…I…”
     
    He opens my door and pulls me into his lap, right in the middle of the hospital car park with people driving and walking past. He pulls me into his lap and wraps his arms around me so tight I feel a little broken piece of me heal.
     
    “If I could take this pain away, Katie, if I could make you whole again I would.” he breathes into my hair.
     
    “But you don’t know me.” I sob into his chest.
     
    “I know all I need to, Katie. I know you’re good and kind and I know you’re hurting,” he takes a deep breath, “And I’m hurting too.”
     
    I sit there, in an almost strangers lap and I sob. Daniel just holds me, he doesn’t speak, he doesn’t move, he just holds me. When the tears finally stop and I’ve got it together enough to stand up and not fall right back down, I get to my feet. Daniel stands up too and looks at me. There are so many things I want to say to him, but the only thing that seems to come out is the one thing that shocks me to my very core.
     
    “Would you like to come back to mine for that drink?”
     
    “I’m not sure tonight is a good night to do this,” he runs his had over his jaw and looks at me, “It was clearly a bad idea.”
     
    “No. Daniel, it wasn’t. I just overthink everything right now. It was a lovely idea, I don’t want to go home to an empty house and by the sounds of things, neither do you. But I’m not sure I want to be surrounded by people right now either. What do you say to a takeaway and some drinks. At mine.”
     
    He looks past me, his eyes not focused, but clearly remembering something. Then he looks back at me and smiles.
     
    “If you’re sure?”
     
    “I’m sure. Thank you, Daniel.” I reach down and take his hand, giving it a little squeeze.
     
    “Then I’d love to.” he smiles, squeezing my hand right back.
     
    “I don’t live far, do you want to follow me?” He nods and steps forward, brushing what must be a lingering tear from my cheek.
     
    “With every tear your pain gets a little less. Every tear makes you heal just a little bit. It hurts, I know it hurts, but I have faith it won’t always.”
     
    “I hope so, for both our sakes, Daniel.” I smile.
     
    “Now, shall we go so we can get steaming drunk?” he laughs.
     
    “Steaming drunk?” I laugh a little, Daniel doesn’t come across as the kind of man who would get steaming drunk.
     
    “Well… Maybe not steaming, but pleasantly drunk?” he raises an eyebrow at me and my heart warms a little.
     
    “Pleasantly drunk sounds like a good idea.”
     
    “Then let’s go. I’ll follow you.”
     
    I turn to get in my car before I realise, I have no alcohol in the house. Not since I decided drinking everything in my drinks cabinet was a good idea. It wasn’t. I passed out, vomited everywhere and Ginny found me on the lounge floor the next morning.
     
    “Erm…”
     
    “Change of heart?” Daniel asks, turning around to face me.
     
    “No…It’s just..I don’t actually have any alcohol in the house.”
     
    “Aaah. That I can fix. Here, give me your address, I’ll stop by a shop on the way to yours. What do you drink?” he hands